[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/insights\/block-cto-ai-productivity-goose-agent#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/insights\/block-cto-ai-productivity-goose-agent","headline":"AI Productivity: How Block Saves 10 Hours a Week","name":"AI Productivity: How Block Saves 10 Hours a Week","description":"\ud83d\udcfa Today’s recommended deep-dive video: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JMeXWVw0r3E The AI Manifesto: How Block Reimagined Engineering for the Agentic EraFrom Silos to FunctionalityThe Rise of Goose: Agents with Arms and LegsThe Counterintuitive Philosophy of BuildingKey TakeawaysQ&A The AI Manifesto: How Block Reimagined Engineering... ","datePublished":"2026-07-03","dateModified":"2026-07-03","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/author\/flextech-admin\/#Person","name":"flextech-admin","url":"https:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/author\/flextech-admin\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=150&d=mm&r=gforcedefault=1","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=150&d=mm&r=gforcedefault=1","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"terabox","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/logo\u4ea7\u54c1\u540d-\u7ad6\u7248.png","url":"http:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/logo\u4ea7\u54c1\u540d-\u7ad6\u7248.png","width":900,"height":900}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/JMeXWVw0r3E\/maxresdefault.jpg","url":"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/JMeXWVw0r3E\/maxresdefault.jpg","height":"","width":""},"url":"https:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/insights\/block-cto-ai-productivity-goose-agent","video":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JMeXWVw0r3E#VideoObject","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JMeXWVw0r3E","name":"How Block is becoming the most AI-native enterprise in the world | Dhanji R. Prasanna","description":"Dhanji R. Prasanna is the chief technology officer at Block (formerly Square), where he\u2019s managed more than 4,000 engineers over the past two years. Under his leadership, Block has become one of the most AI-native large companies in the world. Before becoming CTO, Dhanji wrote an \u201cAI manifesto\u201d to CEO Jack Dorsey that sparked a company-wide transformation (and his promotion to CTO).\n\n*We discuss:*\n1. How Block\u2019s internal open-source agent, called Goose, is saving employees 8 to 10 hours weekly\n2. How the company measures AI productivity gains across technical and non-technical teams\n3. Which teams are benefiting most from AI (it\u2019s not engineering)\n4. The boring organizational change that boosted productivity even more than AI tools\n5. Why code quality has almost nothing to do with product success\n6. How to drive AI adoption throughout an organization (hint: leadership needs to use the tools daily)\n7. Lessons from building Google Wave, Google+, and other failed products\n\n*Brought to you by:*\nSinch\u2014Build messaging, email, and calling into your product: https:\/\/sinch.com\/lenny\nFigma Make\u2014A prompt-to-code tool for making ideas real: https:\/\/www.figma.com\/lenny\/\nPersona\u2014A global leader in digital identity verification: https:\/\/withpersona.com\/lenny\n\n*Transcript:* https:\/\/www.lennysnewsletter.com\/p\/how-block-is-becoming-the-most-ai-native\n\n*My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers):* https:\/\/www.lennysnewsletter.com\/i\/176082333\/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation\n\n*Where to find Dhanji R. Prasanna:*\n\u2022 LinkedIn: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/dhanji\/\n\n*Where to find Lenny:*\n\u2022 Newsletter: https:\/\/www.lennysnewsletter.com\n\u2022 X: https:\/\/twitter.com\/lennysan\n\u2022 LinkedIn: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/lennyrachitsky\/\n\n*In this episode, we cover:*\n(00:00) Introduction to Dhanji\n(05:26) The AI manifesto: convincing Jack Dorsey\n(07:33) Transforming into a more AI-native company\n(12:05) How engineering teams work differently today\n(15:24) Goose: Block\u2019s open-source AI agent\n(20:18) Measuring AI productivity gains across teams\n(21:38) What Goose is and how it works\n(32:15) The future of AI in engineering and productivity\n(37:42) The importance of human taste\n(40:10) Building vs. buying software\n(44:08) How AI is changing hiring and team structure\n(53:45) The importance of using AI tools yourself before deploying them\n(55:13) How Goose helped solve a personal problem with receipts\n(58:01) What makes Goose unique\n(59:57) What Dhanji wishes he knew before becoming CTO\n(01:01:49) Counterintuitive lessons in product development\n(01:04:56) Why controlled chaos can be good for engineering teams\n(01:08:07) Core leadership lessons\n(01:13:36) Failure corner\n(01:15:50) Lightning round and final thoughts\n\n*Referenced:*\n\u2022 Jack Dorsey on X: https:\/\/x.com\/jack\n\u2022 Block: https:\/\/block.xyz\/\n\u2022 Square: https:\/\/squareup.com\/\n\u2022 Cash App: https:\/\/cash.app\/\n\u2022 What is Conway\u2019s Law?: https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/organization\/what-is-conways-law#\n\u2022 Goose: https:\/\/github.com\/block\/goose\n\u2022 Gosling: https:\/\/github.com\/block\/goose-mobile\n\u2022 Salesforce: https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/\n\u2022 Snowflake: https:\/\/www.snowflake.com\/\n\u2022 Claude: https:\/\/claude.ai\/\n\u2022 Anthropic co-founder on quitting OpenAI, AGI predictions, $100M talent wars, 20% unemployment, and the nightmare scenarios keeping him up at night | Ben Mann: https:\/\/www.lennysnewsletter.com\/p\/anthropic-co-founder-benjamin-mann\n\u2022 OpenAI: https:\/\/openai.com\/\n\u2022 OpenAI\u2019s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter): https:\/\/www.lennysnewsletter.com\/p\/kevin-weil-open-ai\n\u2022 Llama: https:\/\/www.llama.com\/\n\u2022 Cursor: https:\/\/cursor.com\/\n\u2022 The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can\u2019t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO): https:\/\/www.lennysnewsletter.com\/p\/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell\n\u2022 Top Gun: https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0092099\/\n\u2022 Lenny\u2019s vibe-coded Lovable app: https:\/\/gdoc-images-grab.lovable.app\/\n\u2022 Afterpay: https:\/\/github.com\/afterpay\n\u2022 Bitkey: https:\/\/bitkey.world\/\n\u2022 Proto: https:\/\/github.com\/proto-at-block\n\u2022 Brad Axen on LinkedIn: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bradleyaxen\/\n\u2022 Databricks: https:\/\/www.databricks.com\/\n\u2022 Carl Sagan\u2019s quote: https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/quotes\/32952-if-you-wish-to-make-an-apple-pie-from-scratch\n...References continued at: https:\/\/www.lennysnewsletter.com\/p\/how-block-is-becoming-the-most-ai-native\n\n*Recommended books:*\n\u2022 The Master and Margarita: https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Master-Margarita-Mikhail-Bulgakov\/dp\/0802130119\n\u2022 Tennyson Poems: https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Tennyson-Poems-Everymans-Library-Pocket\/dp\/1400041872\/\n\n_Production and marketing by https:\/\/penname.co\/._\n_For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com._\n\nLenny may be an investor in the companies 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